Celestial Stars and Bright Gratitude
by LucyMabely
Summary: Lucy confesses her feelings to Natsu, but he rejects her while wanting to date Lisanna. When Lucy later takes a job alone, she runs into trouble with a thief. However, Sting saves her and the thief drops some important things. Sting shows no interest in Lucy for her thanking him, but will that change as they become friends and start liking each other? Sting x Lucy. Read & Review.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

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 **February Heartbreak**

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Lucy Heartfilia arrived at Fairy Tail's guildhall with a happy smile on her face, feeling quite delighted that she would get to handle another job with her best friends, and this was also the day where Lucy was going to say something special to Natsu Dragneel. The pink-haired dragon slayer who could exhale fire was always ready to rescue her on missions, never having trouble with taking down any enemies who would injure Lucy or kidnap her, and Lucy's cheeks blushed a light shade of pink as she thought about how Natsu was always kind to her. He would even buy her food from restaurants when she complained about him eating too much food from her fridge, and Natsu was a good friend.

Lucy was also happy that she'd get to go on another adventure with Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet, as they were wizards who could fight really well, and Lucy would always recall the day where Erza surprised everyone by slicing a giant monster in half with one of her powerful steel swords that was part of her Heaven's Wheel Armor. She also thought about how Gray's Ice-Make Magic was strong enough to make enemies be frozen, and his icy attacks were very powerful. Erza and Gray always fought hard against opponents on missions, and they even blocked attacks that would go towards Lucy.

Her cocoa brown eyes looked straight ahead to see the other members of the team sitting down at a table, watching Erza give Gray and Natsu a death glare to make them stop arguing, and Lucy merely giggled cheerfully while she walked over to them. She focused her attention on Natsu as she felt some nervousness about admitting her feelings for him, really hoping he would understand that she wanted their friendship to escalate into being a relationship, and Lucy's heart started to softly palpitate as she sat down in a brown chair that was close to the table.

Natsu was quick to notice her presence, looking at Lucy with the comical grin that was always on his face, and Lucy smiled back at him while her eyes slightly twinkled. Gray and Erza also noticed that the blonde-haired mage was here, but they simply said nothing because of how the argument that just ended was about what Natsu would do today. The silence among the four mages caused Lucy to open her mouth. She was preparing to confess her love for Natsu, and Lucy desired to become his girlfriend. She placed her hands on her heart while feeling like Natsu would enjoy hearing her confession, and Lucy thought things would go well.

Lucy blurted out in Natsu's face with nervousness in her voice, blushing as she closed her eyes, "Natsu, I.. I love you! I love being around you, and I want to always be by your side!"

Natsu responded in a calm manner, misinterpreting Lucy's confession for a casual conversation, "I love you, too. You're a really good friend, Lucy. Hey, you can be by my side right now to help me tell a girl in this guild that I like her."

From hearing Natsu's last words in that response, the smile of happiness that had been on Lucy's change slowly shifted to being a frown. She confessed her feelings for Natsu, only to have him tell her that he was interested in dating someone else, and they would only continue to be friends. Erza gave Lucy an apologetic look while thinking about how the argument earlier was about if Natsu should tell Lucy about who he wanted to date, and she was against the idea of telling Lucy because she didn't want her feelings to get hurt. Gray, however, wanted Natsu to be honest about it with Lucy. From his perspective, she deserved the decency of knowing that.

Gray told Natsu in a stern manner as he saw Lucy's frown show her disappointment, not liking how the fire dragon slayer was still grinning, "That wasn't a casual conversation, Flame-brain! Tell her how you and Lisanna have been bonding for the past five months! Even after the Grand Magic Games ended, you two have been talking."

Lucy asked Natsu in a disappointed tone while her eyes showed feelings of sadness, "Natsu, you two have been talking? Why didn't you at least tell me...?"

Lucy began to think about how the past five months were now a complete waste, as she loved being around Natsu, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard felt like her heart would shatter into many pieces. Getting rejected by Natsu was one thing, but Lucy looked back on how they spent the last Christmas together in her apartment. She even baked gingerbread cookies for him during a cold evening, and he only saw her as a friend. Their friendship wouldn't go any further than that, and even helping Natsu on small jobs proved to be useless for making a relationship possibly bloom.

Many people in life experienced heartbreak, but Lucy just didn't see it coming. She did not think it would happen to her, especially after all the hugs she shared with Natsu on missions. Lucy could've done the simple thing of asking Natsu if he liked anyone else, but she just never chose to do that. Not only did Lucy feel pretty sad about Natsu turning her down, but she also felt very disappointed with herself for not doing more to prevent Natsu from having feelings for another girl. She proceeded to get up from table, and Lucy wasn't interested in doing any jobs with Team Natsu today.

She remembered that her rent of 70,000 jewels was due soon, and Lucy currently had 67,000 jewels saved up. Lucy only needed one more small job to be able to pay her rent, and she walked over to the request board that was nearby. Natsu watched Lucy unpin a flyer from the board while he could see that it was chosen at random, as Lucy didn't mind that the job actually paid 77,000 jewels, and the flyer was red. Lucy didn't even think about going over to Mirajane for her to stamp it, and she proceeded to run out of the Fairy Tail guild.

Gray asked Lucy with a concerned look on his face, wondering about that job's details, "Lucy, where are you going? Wouldn't it be good for the rest of us to go with you?"

Lucy simply replied to him in a saddened tone while having her blonde hair cover her eyes, "I'm going home, Gray. I can handle this job later, but please don't follow me."

She didn't want any members of Team Natsu to know about this job because of how she was very upset over the fact that Natsu wanted to date someone else, and Lucy walked down the left side of the staircase while sniffling about the situation. She didn't want Natsu or Erza to see that tears were starting to run down her face, simply because of how she didn't want Natsu to feel bad about his decision to date Lisanna, and Lucy would just have to accept that the fire dragon slayer wanted to date someone who had been his childhood friend.

She ignored the sight of Lisanna walking up the right side of guild's stairs in a cheerful manner, and Lucy felt like this was the worst day ever. She told Natsu about how she felt, only for him to inform her that his feelings were directed elsewhere, and the bond they shared during and before the Grand Magic Games was only a casual friendship. Lucy began running home to her apartment while thinking about how good it would be to take a hot shower in an attempt to calm her mind, and she hated how the happiness in heart had now changed to feelings of sorrow.

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 **A/N: How was Chapter 1? Did you like it? My other StiCy story got removed from the site for some reason, but I won't be too upset. This new story will be pretty interesting, however, and I'm pretty excited to see where it goes. Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

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 **Magnolia's Nightly Surprises**

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Lucy found herself back in the guildhall while it was surprisingly still early in the morning, but she saw the weird sight of Natsu standing in front of the bar. He grinned confidently as he wore a red tuxedo while Mirajane wore a purple dress as she was behind the bar. Mira simply cleaned a brown beer mug with a white rag while she hummed a happy tune to herself, and it seemed like the two mages didn't mind that Lucy was the only other person in the Fairy Tail guild right now. An exciting event would happen in the Fairy Tail guild, but Lucy wasn't even informed about it.

She decided to walk over to a brown table on he left side of the guildhall, sitting in a brown chair that was close to the window, and some rays of sunlight shined towards Lucy's face. She smiled softly while seeing Gray enter the guild with Juvia, but something was quite weird. The black-haired mage was wearing a dark blue tuxedo while Juvia wore a nice dress that was light blue, and they both smiled at Lucy as they walked over to the table where she was sitting. Erza showed up after them in a strapless scarlet red dress that looked pretty fashionable, but Lucy felt very surprised at all the fanciness.

Her current attire was a pink pajama shirts with pink pajama pants to match, which caused Erza to give her a scolding look while walking towards the table, and Lucy looked pretty embarrassed to not be dressed up for what was about to happen. She soon saw a five-layer chocolate fudge cake appear on the left side of the bar while it was on a brown plate, and Lucy blinked her eyes in disbelief from seeing that. No one in the guild had used any kind of magic to make cakes appear, as Erza couldn't even warp cakes into the guild, and that prompted Lucy to seek answers.

She was about to speak, but the guild's entrance doors suddenly closing by themselves really made her look surprised. Lucy watched them slowly creak open again, almost like this was being done for someone special, and Lucy's cocoa brown eyes glanced over at Natsu to see him adjusting his red pants as he smiled with delight. She watched him slowly take steps towards the center of the guildhall while someone slowly walked in, and Lucy's mouth silently dropped in shock as she got to see that Lisanna walked in while wearing a white wedding dress.

"Lucy, you should've dressed properly for the wedding. This is a big day for Natsu and Lisanna, you know." Erza told her in a stern tone while turning to face her, causing Lucy's attention to shift in her direction.

The blonde-haired mage replied in a somewhat timid manner, trying to take her eyes off of Lisanna, "Erza, I... No one even told me about this. Just yesterday, Natsu told me that he liked her."

Lisanna kindly said aloud towards Natsu in a worried tone as she got closer to him, her blue eyes showing some fear, "Natsu, I'm scared that Lucy will hurt me. She wasn't invited because of how she's always been rude to me out of jealousy."

Lucy took notice of Lisanna's beautiful white wedding dress that had ruffles at the bottom, wondering how expensive that dress must've been, but she soon looked displeased about what Lisanna publicly said. Lucy felt like she would never hurt another girl out of jealously, even if Natsu's heart was set on dating her, and Lucy watched other mages be warped into the guild while they glared at her in an unpleasant manner. Even Erza began to give Lucy a death glare while not wanting her to ruin this day, and Lucy could only tremble at how that one sentence made her look like the most hated girl in Fiore.

She slowly got up and felt like getting some cake, only for Erza to get up with the intent to stop her, and the scarlet-haired mage really felt like Lucy would cause problems for the wedding. This sudden drama caused Lucy to glare at Lisanna while ignoring how her right hand reached for the silver knife that would be used to cut the chocolate cake, and Lisanna backed away in fear while looking like she was going to cry. That caused Gray and others to glare at Lucy for presumably intending to hurt Lisanna, and this situation wasn't cool at all.

Natsu wasted no time with creating a fireball in his left hand while he glared at Lucy for making his girlfriend want to cry, and Lucy could only watch the fire dragon slayer throw that fireball in her direction. Erza got out of the way while the attack hit Lucy directly, and she screamed in agony while feeling herself be set ablaze. Natsu's flames burned with so much more heat than normal to where Lucy was engulfed in the red-orange flames, and her clothes started to burn away while her fair skin quickly became brown and charred.

The heat was pretty intense while the flames even charred Lucy's beautiful blonde hair into being dark brown, and she struggled to stand up while being in so much pain. Lucy couldn't believe that Natsu would attack her like that, and she trembled in fear as he started walking towards her with a displeased facial expression. Lucy had no clue of how she was still alive right now while the flames completely burned off her pajamas to where she was in a white lacy bra and white lacy panties, but she trembled so much to where she dropped the knife and backed away. Before Natsu could say anything to her, however, Lucy's right hand slammed the cake on to the ground.

Lisanna exclaimed in a shocked manner, before putting her hands over her mouth, "My cake! It looked so delicious, and now it's a mess on the floor! Lucy, I can't believe you hate our relationship so much to where you'd do that!"

Natsu asked Lucy while staring down at the chocolate mess, starting to feel sad at how he wouldn't get the first slice, "Why did you do that, Lucy? Why? Couldn't you just let me have one slice before being the problem that would ruin the wedding day?"

Lucy replied in a calm tone as the flames started to fade away, closing her eyes while feeling harsh burns on her body, "It was just an accident, Natsu. You didn't even tell me that you and Lisanna were getting married, and she's lying. I never hurt Lisanna, and I'm not jealous at all!"

The fact that Lucy started to look away from Natsu while denying her jealousy eerily caused Lisanna's tears to cease. She began to wipe them away, and the white-haired mage narrowed her blue eyes in a stern manner. She took some steps towards Lucy while motioning for Natsu to take some steps back, and Lisanna felt like Lucy kept denying her feelings of envy to delude herself into believing that it was the truth. She really didn't like people who lied to themselves, and Lisanna watched Lucy start to cry while the cake stood between them.

Lucy fell to her knees while Lisanna rudely smirked at her, and Natsu's lover told Lucy to just let out all that jealousy for everyone to see Lucy's immaturity. The Celestial Spirit Wizard decided to counter that command by angrily telling Lisanna to eat chocolate cake off of the floor, and that prompted the younger Strauss sister to simply frown at Lucy. She didn't want to end up having a conflict with Lucy, but it seemed like they really had the enemies. Lucy culd only watch Lisanna pick up the knife that was for the cake, and the supposedly sweet girl slowly walked towards her enemy. Lucy looked up at Lisanna with tears starting to well up in her eyes, almost like she wanted to beg for mercy, and Lucy could only scream before she felt the sharp knife cut into her throat with ease.

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At that moment, she woke up in the bedroom of her apartment while screaming. Lucy breathed quickly and heavily, feeling her heart palpitating rapidly like it was going to beat out of her chest at any moment. Her face was stained by all the tears that ran down from her eyes as she had slept, and the tears were quite sticky from how Lucy cried so much as the hours of the night had gone by. She slowly sat up and saw that her pajamas was still on her body, and Lucy plucked out one of her hairs to see that it was still blonde.

As she was also sweating profusely, Lucy looked around to see that nothing was burning. She wasn't in the Fairy Tail guild, and glancing out the window for a moment let Lucy see that it wasn't daytime. Lucy could only hear herself breathing heavily from that horrible nightmare, and she saw that no one had broken into her apartment. No one from the guild was here, especially not Natsu or Lisanna, and being back in reality caused Lucy to exhale a deep sigh of relief. However, she certainly didn't feel like going back to sleep after having that dream.

Lucy got the pink comforter off of her body, and she stepped out of bed. It may have been dark in her apartment right now, but Lucy was able to walk over to her brown desk that was nearby. She took notice of how the alarm clock informed her that it was now 1 o'clock in the morning, and Lucy recalled how she went to sleep at 7 o'clock at night because of how she wanted yesterday to be over. She simply looked down at the clock with a disappointed facial expression, still feeling heartbroken over how Natsu had feelings for Lisanna, but Lucy couldn't let herself become jealous or bitter.

If Lisanna and Natsu wanted to have a relationship, how could Lucy possibly stand in their way? She thought about how the dream's only good point was that she didn't have to witness them sharing a passionate kiss, but the the thought of that happening only made Lucy sigh in a depressed manner. She proceeded to lightly punch the left and right sides of her head while not wanting her mind to be so focused on that, and Lucy soon frowned with frustration as she felt like a distraction was needed. She hoped to get Natsu out of her thoughts, and Lucy frustratingly looked down at her desk before seeing something odd.

"Wait, what?" Lucy asked aloud in a confused manner, blinking her eyes at the red flyer that was on the desk.

Lucy had picked out a job yesterday to be capable of paying the monthly rent, but she must not have been paying attention to which flyer she got from the board. This job required Lucy to capture a dark mage who was pretty notorious for being a thief who doubled as a merchant, and the client would pay Lucy 77,000 jewels for getting the job done. She felt like that was a bit too much, but handling this task was a better idea than turning it down. Lucy was surprised to see that the client stated that they were from the dark guild known as Crimson Flame, and the thief was said to be one of their own members who had a rebellious streak with a snarky attitude as well.

This was a job that Lucy would have to handle by herself, as the other members of Team Natsu were most likely sleeping, and Lucy even wanted to take this job alone to have time away from Natsu. She wasted no time with going over to her closet for the purpose of picking out some clothes to wear, and Lucy felt like any outfit would be fine for a task that would be handled at night. She took off her pajama shirt and her pajama pants while wondering if it would be nice to at least wear something that made her appear to look upbeat, and Lucy moved some T-shirts aside to find something nice.

She found a strapless purple dress that looked pretty, and Lucy had bought it last month with some cash that was remaining after paying the rent. Honestly, Lucy was actually lucky that the owner of the clothing store was in the mood to give her a thirty percent discount on it. She proceeded to put it on, and Lucy also picked out some black high-heeled shoes to go with the dress. After that, she smiled nicely while walking back to her brown desk. Lucy let out a soft yawn while still feeling somewhat tired, but she wouldn't let that stop her from handling this job.

Lucy looked at the mirror that was on her desk while deciding to wear her blonde hair down, thinking that it would be good to not look like she was a wizard who was out to catch a thief, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard was satisfied with her appearance. She took the flyer off of the desk while heading into the living room, and her ten golden Zodiac Gate Keys were all on the brown coffee table. Lucy went over to the table and picked up the silver ring that her keys were on, and she put it in the left pocket of her purple dress.

"I don't go to any bars that are open at night, and most restaurants are closed. Well, at least not having much room in the fridge proved to be a blessing." Lucy said aloud to herself while looking pretty calm, feeling like taking a late-night snack with her was a good idea.

Her cocoa brown eyes caught sight of a black rectangular box that was left out on the white kitchen table, and Lucy quickly walked over to it. She removed the black box's cover to see that it contained seven rice balls that Levy McGarden bought for her two days ago, but Lucy left them out on the table because the fridge was full. She decided to take out two of the rice balls, immediately eating one of them to hopefully quell the sounds of her stomach growling, and Lucy had been too depressed to eat dinner last night. She could certainly use the reward money to make up for that, though.

She enjoyed the crunchy taste of the rice ball that had been in her left hand, and Lucy held the other one in that same hand as she walked towards the front door. The stellar mage opened the door and went out of her apartment, closing the door with her right hand, but the flyer seemed to confuse her when she glanced at it again. Lucy stepped out of her apartment and headed down the street while seeing that the client stated that the mage who stole from the guild could be on Kagari Island, but she hadn't heard of that location or paid any mind to it on any maps that she'd seen in the past. The people down at the harbor probably knew about it, so Lucy felt like the best decision was for her to go down to Magnolia's harbor.

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 **30 minutes later, on a street in Magnolia...**

Lucy was now on a street that was close to the harbor, starting to feel the calm sea breeze while she could smell the salty air, but she did look somewhat worried about the possibility of the ships not running this late at night. That would certainly keep her from handling this job and getting the money, but Lucy would just have to hope that fate was going to be on her side. She continued to walk down the street that was bordered by houses and shops on both sides, taking in the calmness of the late night, and Lucy felt like humming a happy tune to herself.

She wasn't near any bars that had drunk guys who would probably like to get her attention, and there were no shopkeepers who would be out at this time of the night to persuade her into buying things that she wouldn't need. Lucy felt relaxed enough to where she could look at the rice ball that was still in her left hand, liking how she still held on to it, and Lucy simply giggled while closing her eyes. She raised her left hand up to her mouth for the purpose of eating the nice snack, but she ended up taking a bite right after hearing the swift footsteps of someone who snatched it out of her hand while running past her!

They appeared to leave behind some Fire Magic, as Lucy winced in pain from seeing her left palm be red-hot like she touched the inside of a heated oven, and that magic sizzled while some smoke rose from Lucy's palm. She looked up from her hand to see a red-haired girl who had her hair in a ponytail, the thief's eyes being hazel, and she wore a red T-shirt with brown khaki shorts and brown boots to match. Lucy watched that girl rudely smirk at her as she held the rice ball in her right hand, and that hand was engulfed in a red aura for a few seconds.

She appeared to be heating up the rice ball to a good temperature, before devouring it quickly, and Lucy could only give the female thief an irritated look for sneakily coming out from behind a nearby merchant shop to rob her like that. The wizard from Fairy Tail noticed that the criminal tightly held a red book in her left hand, along with a piece of paper, but she wouldn't assume that this girl was headed to Magnolia's library. Lucy pulled out the ring that had her golden keys on it, and she wasted no time with getting one of the keys off of the ring. Lucy was ready to summon a Celestial Spirit, but she would have the decency to at least ask for her opponent's name and motives for being out so late.

"My name is Lucy Heartfilia, and I'm a Celestial Spirit Wizard in the Fairy Tail guild. I've never seen you in this town, so tell me who you are and why you're here." Lucy told her opponent in a stern tone, narrowing her eyes as she clenched her right fist tightly.

The thief replied in a snarky manner, before closing her eyes and giggling, "My name is Kira Hinoarashi, and I recently defected from the guild called Crimson Flame. You act serious like a mage, but you dress like someone who wants to have late-night fun at the club."

Lucy responded while still being irritated, summoning a Celestial Spirit to help her out, "Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!"

The pink-haired spirit calmly said as she knelt by Lucy's side for a moment, "Hello, princess."

Kira started off the battle by unleashing a red flame from her mouth, and it quickly went towards Lucy while the red-haired criminal also fired some flames at the ground. She watched them create miniature explosions that resulted in the appearance of more flames, but this fiery move had a pretty hot trick to it. Lucy slid to her right in an attempt to evade the flame, only to see it vanish into thin air, but that flaming attack came out of a nearby flame to strike her at high speeds! Lucy was caught in a fiery blast that was small while it felt pretty hot, and she wondered how Kira did that.

Virgo used her spell of Earth Magic that was known as Diver, and she simply dug a large hole in the ground. She went underground to evade the two flames that Kira fired in her direction, and Lucy simply watched them explode upon hitting the ground. Virgo burrowed through the earth until she got close to where Kira was standing, and she emerged from underground to hit the criminal with a harsh kick to the chest. It sent her sliding backwards, but Kira maintained her rude smirk of confidence while planning her next attack.

She moved her right hand towards Virgo while also making eight flames jump towards her, and what happened next was certainly a surprise for Lucy to see. The eight red flames floated around Virgo at rapid speeds as they formed a circle, making her feel their heat waves while some other flames jumped into the fiery circle, and the sound of Kira snapping her left hand's fingers caused that ring to become a fiery twister! Lucy watched Virgo scream in pain from how the temperature of Kira's Fire Magic heightened, and the flames engulfed the maiden while fiery explosions also occurred within the twister.

As soon as the twister detonated in a fiery blast that sent flames in Lucy's direction, she was quick to send Virgo back to the Celestial Spirit World. However, the sigh of large flames coming her way caused Lucy's body to start trembling. It reminded her of the nightmare, making her recall that feeling of being badly burned, and Lucy could only shut her eyes in fear. She didn't get to see white rays of light go towards the flames and create white blasts of light, rocks rising out of the ground to get burned by the remaining flames, and Lucy opened her eyes to see Kira's smirk turn into a groan of frustration.

"I take on the job of being a cashier at a bakery in Magnolia out of boredom, and you steal a chocolate fudge cake. After you ran off with it and ate it, I had to spend five hours tracking you down because you ran all the way to the area near the harbor in an attempt to hide from me. You're smart, but not smart enough if you're picking on some girl this late at night." The male wizard explained to Kira while walking towards her, not paying any attention to Lucy.

Kira exclaimed in a startled manner, not thinking that someone would track her down as payback for her thievery, "Whoa, you sure like to hold a grudge for me giving myself some dessert! Taking on someone from Fairy Tail is easy, but I'm not letting a famous dragon slayer catch me!"

"You not only stole from the bakery, but you stole from the great Sting Eucliffe and thought I was a chump who wouldn't chase you." The blond-haired dragon slayer replied in a calm tone as he narrowed his blue eyes that had slits in them.

Before Kira could activate anymore spells of Fire Magic, Sting applied his White Dragon Slayer Magic to the soles of his feet. He ran towards Kira at high speeds while white light engulfed his fists, and he gave her seven harsh punches to the face. He ended it with a powerful kick to her chest, causing her to fall backwards, and the red spell book fell to the ground while the sheet of paper slowly fell down to be on top of it. Kira slowly got up to meet Sting's stern glare, and turning around in an attempt to run away was bad idea. He grabbed her by the back of her shirt, and Lucy looked pretty surprised to see that he was here.

She recognized him as one of Sabertooth's twin dragons from the Grand Magic Games, and Lucy watched him pull out a brown rope from the left pocket of his cream-colored pants that were held up by black suspenders. The rope was still neatly in loops, but Sting undid it for the purpose of tying it around Kira's waist with a knot to keep it secure. He even had her hands be caught in the rope, too, and Sting simply muttered quietly about how Kira led him on a crazy chase around town instead of simply paying for the large cake. He honestly wished that the bakery's owner made him only be there during the day, but Sting soon turned around to see Lucy give him a smile of gratitude for brightening up her night.

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 **A/N: How was Chapter 2? Did you like it? This chapter was pretty exciting to write, and I'm feeling pretty psyched about the rest of this first arc. Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review for faster updates! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

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 **The Fiery Star**

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Lucy smiled kindly at Sting for keeping those flames from burning her to death, but seeing the pink Fairy Tail insignia on the back of her right hand caused the white dragon slayer to merely scoff at her while not having any interest in Lucy at all. He didn't really like the fact that she was the girl who had been on Natsu's team in the Grand Magic Games, especially since her little fight with Kira made Sting feel like Lucy wasn't capable of winning any fights, and Sting really felt like Yukino was the better Celestial Spirit Wizard because of how she was studying other areas of that magic.

That didn't keep Lucy from giving him a smile of gratitude, however, and she was very glad that he had also been out late at night. There really wasn't anything that Lucy do right now to repay Sting for helping her out, but she would definitely return the favor. Lucy continued to look at him, but then her cocoa brown eyes shifted to Kira. The fire-wielding wizard was struggling to get out of the ropes that Sting used for the purpose of tying her up, and she was looking down at the red book in a begging manner like she really needed it.

That caused Lucy to have a look of curiosity on her face, and she walked towards the red book that had fallen on the ground. Lucy felt pretty glad that it was a few inches away from the nearest flames that were on this street, but she chose to look at the white piece of paper that had been on top of the book. It appeared to be blank, but then she flipped it over to the other side with her left hand. Lucy took some steps towards Sting and Kira as she saw that it was a brown map that appeared to be old, but there was a marking in the shape of a star while it was red.

As Lucy turned her attention to the red book and picked it up, she also picked up the map with her left hand to see that the marked area was off of the mainland. That meant whatever Kira was looking for would end up being on an island, which could weirdly coincide with the fact that the client who sent the red flyer was on Kagari Island with their dark guild, and seeing that Kira was a thief made Lucy wonder if she was the criminal who needed to be caught. Lucy also narrowed her eyes while recalling that Kira didn't say why she was in Magnolia before they fought.

"Kira, do you mind telling us why you came here? Also, what is this book and what's the map for?" Lucy asked her in a stern tone while getting in her face, hoping to get honest answers.

The red-haired wizard replied in a snarky manner, before giggling, "Since your life is uninteresting to where mine has you curious, I'll tell you. After stealing that spell book and the map from the Crimson Flame guild on Kagari Island, I came here to hide. Legends and lore interest me just as much as being a thief who makes money from doubling as a merchant, and taking jobs like a mage would've given me way more jewels. Keep your hands off my map, Blondie."

Lucy comically responded in an angry manner, punching the top of Kira's head, "Well, it's mine now! You should've kept your hands off of my rice ball!"

Sting walked over to Lucy and took notice of the red flyer in her hand, seeing that the client wanted her to capture a snarky mage who had a rebellious streak, and he started to grin confidently from seeing that Kira fit the description of being a snarky mage. Since Kira was now captured, Lucy could go get the money from the client on Kagari Island. However, Sting turned to face Kira and noticed that she tried to hide a faint grin. The fact that Lucy was headed to that island seemed like a nice thing, but Kira clearly didn't speak of everything.

He went over to her and grabbed the front of her shirt with his right hand, wondering what she could possibly be happy about, and Kira told him in a calm manner that they wouldn't have any reasons to celebrate when they reached that island. The guild of Crimson Flame was north of Hongnyeon Town, but that place was going through trouble right now because of mages not being able to use their Fire Magic. That really sparked Sting's interest in the matter, as he never heard something like that happen before, and Kira's hazel eyes became filled with true seriousness to show Lucy that she wasn't lying.

Lucy still intended on taking Kira back to that dark guild to receive her reward money, but she was surprised to hear the red-haired criminal say that she went into the town's fiery volcano last month. Kira got to see the nice treasure in an altar, but she unfortunately caught sight of a green-haired woman putting the treasure back in its indentation after she had removed it. Taking out that magical item apparently caused the magma level and temperature in the volcano to rise, which made more heat go into the Fire Magic, and some of the strong mages now found their spells to be insanely powerful.

It seemed ironic that a thief like Kira had to witness another thief stealing the treasure of Kagari Island, but Lucy looked focused while feeling like they had to see if there was any way to get the Fire Magic back to its normal level. Kira's Fire Magic was affected by that same deficiency, but coming to Magnolia and seeing it not be overly powerful meant that the problem wasn't spreading outward to other areas of Fiore. That meant Lucy could try and find a way to fix the problem, and Kira would have to help her. However, she did start to give Sting a soft smile.

Sting replied in a somewhat annoyed manner, disliking the idea of being on a boat, "I get that's it's a really bad problem, but getting motion sickness late at night is not what I came here to do."

Lucy asked him in a concerned tone, trying to persuade him, "Sting, what if your friend Rufus went there and used Fire Magic that he memorized? Would you want Sabertooth to be responsible for injuring people, or would you rather have Kira from Crimson Flame have enough idiocy to do that?"

Kira replied as she looked offended, struggling to get out of the ropes, "Hey, I have no idiocy. At least I'd tie someone up after they gave me crucial information."

Sting sighed in a miffed manner while deciding that it would be the best decision to free Kira, but he narrowed his blue eyes while hoping she didn't intend to run off. His fanged teeth harshly bit through some sections of the ropes, causing them to come apart, and Sting ran to the harbor because of the fact that he wanted to get this matter over with. Kira ran after him while Lucy folded the map for it to neatly fit in the left pocket of her purple dress, but she still winced in pain from how her left palm got burned from when Kira swiped the rice ball.

The trio ran to the harbor while hoping that Kagari Island wouldn't burst into flames because of some mages being complete idiots, and Lucy mainly hoped to find something that would soothe her left palm. She opened up the red book to its first section while running, and Lucy noticed that it was a book of spells. She turned some pages with her right hand to see the words in scarlet red text while the descriptions of those spells were also there. Some words in the section were in light pink text while Lucy couldn't read them because of the characters being in a different language, and that was as crazy as this adventure.

* * *

 **Two hours later, on Kagari Island...**

Lucy, Kira, and Sting were pretty lucky to get on a white ship that left three minutes after they boarded it. Lucy informed the captain and the sailors that her group needed to reach Kagari Island, which surprised some of the sailors because of how they didn't want to be caught in a volcanic eruption, but the old captain felt that request could be granted because of how Lucy seemed brave enough to go there. The ship also didn't have many passengers, so the trio would be able to head to Kagari Island without getting any passengers miffed.

The three wizards were now on the dock of Kagari Island, Kira feeling pretty excited to go look for the treasure, but Lucy was currently watching Sting throw up as he stood on the end of the dock. Lucy could tell that motion sickness was one of the worst things for a dragon slayer to deal with, as Natsu always felt very uncomfortable on vehicles of any kind, and she merely rubbed Sting's back with her right hand to soothe him. Even if he didn't like being around her right now, Lucy would still be decent to the white dragon slayer.

Lucy turned to the spot where Kira had been standing, only to see that she ran towards a concession stand that was selling some red cherry cupcakes that were very hot, and the blonde-haired mage was quite surprised to see Kira pull out a red wallet from the right pocket of her pants. It was even more jaw-dropping that she had tons of money on her, due to how she was pretty good at selling items, and Kira just liked being a thief because it gave her the items that she needed to sell. Kira having a personal stash of money wasn't the biggest issue right now, though.

As Lucy walked up the brown dock to be on the cobblestone street, she noticed some people leaving restaurants while complaining about how the food was way too hot. One woman even complained about one of the young dark mages using Fire Magic on spicy food, which made it feel much more spicier than normal, and there were some mages who tried to cool themselves down with red paper fans as they sat under a tree. Lucy even got to see a young red-haired girl around Wendy's age exhale a beam of fire, only for it to be massive, and it ended up setting a rotten tree ablaze.

"Sting, isn't this just terrible? How could the island's Fire Magic get out of control like this?" Lucy asked him with a saddened look on her face, not wanting Kagari Island to burn.

Sting replied in a calm manner after turning to face her, getting over his motion sickness, "Well, we just have to find the root of the problem. Kira mentioned the volcano, so let's go check it out."

Kira added as she came back with a brown wooden basket of cupcakes, looking psyched, "You're right! Let's go to the volcano, and we'll see how badly the treasure got disturbed."

She held the basket with her left hand while raising her right hand to receive high-fives, but Lucy and Sting merely started to frown at her while not forgetting that she was a criminal. Kira was pretty psyched at the possibility of also finding riches in that area of the volcano, but neither Sting or Lucy would let her run off with that money like she was a mage in a legal guild. They would be keeping a close eye on her every move, and Lucy really hoped that Kira was the type of person who genuinely wanted the island to be safe.

Kira wasted no time with running off, which caused Sting and Lucy to run after her, and the snarky girl turned to the right before going on a northern path. Lucy and Sting followed her to see the destruction of several stores that had been set on fire during last month's panic about food running out, and some people even stole clothes that were part of the latest fashion trends. Some of the red-haired dark mages on this street were good at looking stylish, but the sight of Lucy's Fairy Tail insignia made them wish she minded her own business.

As Sting continued to follow Kira, he looked at Lucy for a moment to see that she had no intention of slowing down. In fact, she wasn't even feeling tired from running towards the volcano that was still 150 feet away. The excitement of this mission was probably bringing out Lucy's desire to run fast, along with her motivation to not see Kagari Island suffer anymore, and Sting liked to see people with determination. He smiled at her during the same moment where a girl nearby was using Fire Magic to heat up her spicy soup, and that was just as good as this adventure.

Lucy winced in pain from the burn on her hand, however, and she had to stop because of how the red burn looked like it was starting to get worse from the intense heat. She put the red book in her right hand for the flyer to be under it, and Lucy could only close her eyes while she refused to ignore the burn any longer. She walked towards some grass that was near the girl who had been cooking, and that girl's red hair was in a ponytail while she wore a red sundress with some nice brown sandals and a red sundress hat to match.

"Excuse me, but do burns from Fire Magic really hurt that much?" The girl asked Lucy in a sweet tone, her violet eyes showing kindness.

Lucy replied while showing her palm to the girl, looking pained as she couldn't even touch it, "I'm not one of Kagari Island's native residents, so I'm not very accustomed to getting burned."

The girl who was also a mage for Crimson Flame responded nicely, "No problem! Let me heal it up for you. I may be a dark mage, but I was ordered by the guild master to be here as a lookout for anyone who needs wounds healed."

Lucy watched the kind mage create fire in her left hand, making it engulf her entire fist, and she slammed that fist down on Lucy's left palm. The flames went straight down to the palm of the protagonist, which made her want to scream, but these flames were different than normal. They didn't bring pain to Lucy, but they ended up healing her hand while also getting rid of the burn. The flames actually absorbed the burn from Lucy's hand, taking in all that heat, and they soon faded away while Lucy's hand looked normal again.

She bowed her head politely to the girl, and then Lucy ran off to catch up with Sting. Judging by how he hadn't been running much faster, it seemed like they would end up reaching the volcano soon. Lucy really hoped that there wouldn't be any fiery monsters in there, and she also wanted to handle this matter quickly. The heat could probably melt ice cream if someone even tried to eat it in this town, and Kira was probably lucky that those cupcakes were infused with Fire Magic that could block heat from burning them up. Lucy ran quickly to at least be near Sting, and she could see Kira talking to someone who appeared to be in front of the volcano's entrance.

* * *

Kira looked miffed at the female guard who wouldn't let her inside the volcano because of how it was very dangerous, and the guard was a woman who had smooth red hair that fell down to her hips. The guard's pale skin was flawless, and it went well with her scarlet red eyes. She wore a low-cut dress that was dark red, along with high-heeled boots that were in a natural shade of red, and her elbow length gloves were cherry red. This woman was sent here by the guild master to just keep people from entering the volcano, but she really didn't like seeing that Kira was back on the island.

This woman's name was Kikyo Kasai, and she was an S-Class mage like Erza. She refused to let Kira be anywhere near the treasure, really doubting her earlier claims of someone else sneaking into the volcano and removing the petal from its sacred place, and only mages who were on official jobs could go into the volcano. If Kira had no reason to be in there, then she wouldn't even get to touch the treasure or figure out any secrets that were tied to it. Kikyo merely gave Kira a harsh stare while folding her arms, and she felt like they could stand there for hours.

"Kikyo, let me pass. This matter is officially in the hands of guild members." Kira told her in a pleading tone, wanting to convince the woman that she needed to go away.

Kikyo replied sternly while folding her arms, looking irked as she remembered another order from the guild master, "Well, the matter of bringing you back to the guild was left in my hands! You stole one of our books, and you need to face the punishment! I'm not letting you pass, even if someone ranked higher than us made that be an order."

Sting responded in an impatient manner while running pretty fast, hearing their conversation, "Let Kira into the volcano! I'm Sabertooth's guild master, and she told me about the fire being out of control! Allow me to take care of this, and you'll let her join my guild!"

That last sentence made Kira and Kikyo both look quite surprised, not thinking that the amazing Sting Eucliffe would want a snarky fire-wielding woman in his guild, but Sting frowned at Kira as he felt like it would be the perfect payback for wasting precious hours of his time, but then the white dragon slayer began to smirk a bit from seeing that she ran so fast. If Kira could run at high speeds and have her Fire Magic at a level that was pretty good, then she would be a nice addition to his guild. He'd be nice to her when she officially joined Sabertooth, but she'd have to earn her friendship.

The thought of Sting taking Kira out of Crimson Flame caused Kikyo to comically start doing a dance of happiness, experiencing the feeling of great joy from how the guild would be relieved of their quirkiest member who was more of a trouble than an asset, and she was glad to take four steps to the left. She started to think of how good it would be to no longer see Mirajane Strauss or Erza Scarlet bring Kira back with the bags of money that she received from jobs. She actually stole those dangerous jobs from the request board in the Fairy Tail guild sometimes, and Erza had publicly reprimanded her several times in Crimson Flame's guildhall about how it wasn't good to pose as a member of Fairy Tail.

She let Sting and Kira go into the volcano while ignoring the sight of Lucy running in after them, and Kikyo started to have an uninterested look on her face while thinking that they would be fine in there. The voluptuous woman felt like they would only need her help if things got really bad, and she felt like they could handle themselves. There were no giant monsters in that volcano, and Kikyo felt like Sting would have to be much dumber than Kira if he thought that taking the treasure out of the volcano would solve anything.

Kikyo let out a nice sigh of relief while feeling like this would be the best night ever, but the loud sound of the volcano's floor starting to break caused her to look pretty shocked. Kira and Sting just went in there with Lucy, only to have the floor crumble underneath them, and Kikyo decided to see if she would have to get them out of the bubbling magma that was burning hot. Her mission was bring Kira back to the guild without having her be dead, and she definitely would not want to hear the guild master lecture her about being responsible.

Kikyo asked in a calm manner while walking inside, stopping in front of a hole that was in the black ground, "Kira, are you okay? Are you hopefully not dead?"

Kira surprisingly answered back in an excited tone from below, looking up at the hole, "That was so awesome, guys! Kikyo, we'll get to see the treasure soon!"

Lucy added as she gave Kira an irritated look, feeling like the ground had immediately cracked, "Next time, warn us about the volcano's rocky land being so unstable!"

The trio was now down in the area where the red petal was located, Lucy feeling like they were very lucky to land on a rectangular piece of land in a room that mainly had magma in it, and Sting took notice of how he was currently holding Lucy in a bridal-style manner. Her cheeks slightly blushed light pink while he held her, liking how the blue-eyed male was pretty strong, but Sting soon put Lucy down on the ground in a calm manner. He watched her quickly get up from how the rectangular stone was pretty hot, and then Sting turned his attention to what was up ahead.

It appeared that the land they stood on was merely one piece of a stone bridge that led straight to an altar, and they needed to get across the other nine parts of the bridge to reach the treasure. Kira decided to casually walk across the stone bridge, only to see some fireballs emerge from the magma, and she ducked quickly while they went over her head. The fireballs jumped in and out of the magma while they passed over different parts of the stone bridge, and Kira soon found herself getting pushed back to the first stone by a vortex of red flames.

Those flames formed from the fireballs that landed on the final stone, separating back into flames that quickly converged to form a vortex, and Kira was bruised by that attack. Lucy helped her get up while she felt like this was quite a fiery trap to protect some treasure, but she looked up to see another hole that was above the altar. That hole must've been how Kira and the other girl got down to this room last time, and Kira even muttered something about that green-haired individual being lucky to use wind for the purpose of escaping from places.

Kira had simply used explosions from fireballs to propel herself back up to that end piece of the stone bridge that had the first hole in it, and magma had been pouring down from that hole like a waterfall. That would explain how the hole they fell through was not getting filled up by magma, and Kira recalled how she had to have fun with scaling the volcano's walls just to get back to the volcano's entrance. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to end up doing that for a second time. Still, how could the trio safely cross this bridge?

* * *

 **10 minutes later...**

After doing some thinking, Lucy opened up the red spell book that she had been holding. There were spells of Fire Magic in it, and they would probably be useful in some way. Lucy went back to the first spell that she had seen, which was a nice move known as Fire Bomb, and she hoped that it could do something that would end up helping the group get past those fireballs. After a few seconds, Lucy ended up shooting out a small red ball of fire from her right hand! It hit one of the fireballs, causing that obstacle to explode in a fiery burst, and the red petal glowed with a scarlet red aura.

Lucy activated the spell once again while watching another fireball emerge from the magma, and she would be sure to hit it. Her next fireball struck it while seeming somewhat larger than the last one, and that fireball quickly exploded. The flames went down on to the stone bridge, but something strange began to happen. Two of the other fireballs that acted as traps were soon drawn to the flames, detonating upon simply making contact, and this spell was certainly weird. It seemed to explode upon making contact with a target, and some pieces of the stone bridge were engulfed in flames.

That prompted Kira to unleash a spell from her right hand, and she simply called it Flame Twister. The attack was of an average while it spun in the clockwise direction, and it headed towards the flames. Lucy and Sting were surprised to see Kira's attack absorb all of those flames while it grew much larger, and the attack went up into the air. It detonated in a red blast that was pretty large, flames going in every direction, and another fireball ended up being struck as soon as it leaped out of the magma. That offensive move was good, really.

Before Kira could celebrate, however, she remained calm while paying attention to that last fireball. As she had experienced, that fireball was probably the harshest thing to deal with. She was about to see if a large blast of fire would make it explode, but Lucy gasped in shock from seeing the second spell in the red book. It seemed to be just as good, having a nice side effect, and Lucy would activate it. Sting seemed curious about what the girls were going to do, and he simply scoffed while feeling like his Holy Ray spell would've made this situation be handled much faster.

"All right, Sting and Kira! Let me test this out! The second spell, I call upon thee! Solana's Fire!" Lucy shouted fiercely while building up magical power, ready to see what would happen.

Kira replied with a cheerful smile on her face, starting to enjoy working with the mages, "Go for it, Lucy!"

Sting said in a calm manner as he folded his arms, liking how Lucy sounded confident, "Let's see what you can do, Blondie."

Lucy shot out a red-orange beam of fire from her mouth, her eyes showing surprise at how the attack was smaller than the Fire Dragon's Roar attack that Natsu used, and it headed straight for the fireball. The spell seemed useless, but Sting and Kira both gasped in shock from seeing all the flames on the stone bridge jump into the beam. They filled it with power, causing the attack to grow much larger while it also became faster, and all that Fire Magic accumulated to where a fireball that emerged from the magma was merely another boost.

Lucy thought back to how that spell wouldn't have been powered up as much without help from the effect of Kira's flaming twister, and she looked at the thieving girl to see that she was genuinely enjoying this. It almost seemed like they were three friends on a mission together, even though that was far from the actual circumstances, and Lucy turned back to see her attack collide with that last fireball. It created a fiery explosion with red smoke, flames going in every direction, but Kira took notice of something that was just as weird.

The altar of the red petal was a rectangular white platform that had a set of white stairs leading up to it, and the red petal itself was in the indentation of the part of the altar that was in the shape of a large white flame. Three red flames were on the left side of the red petal while three other flames were on the right side, and one was directly above it. They appeared one by one, being near the petal when a fireball was defeated, and the seven flames all engulfed the petal simultaneously. They surrounded it with their hot fire, before being absorbed by the red petal's Fire Magic, and Sting thought that was amazing.

He watched the red clouds of smoke and dust fade away to reveal that all the flames on the stone bridge were now sizzling out, which allowed him to run across the bridge with ease, and Sting got to see that the red petal was oddly a glittery red stone that was shaped like a star. He felt like the group must've stumbled upon the wrong treasure, but Lucy ran up to him while taking note of how pretty it looked. Kira also thought it looked beautiful, her hazel eyes full of great joy from how she would finally get to see it up close, but Sting was still confused.

He asked Kira in a calm tone while looking pretty confused, "If it's not really a petal, then why do you all call it that?"

"Well, that rumor was said to be started by a cult of treasure hunters who followed the black mage known as Zeref. When I first saw it, I was as shocked as you are now." Kira explained to him while the excitement caused her feet to start going towards the altar.

Lucy told Kira in a calm tone while smiling, glad that they helped her out, "We're glad that we helped you, Kira, but now we should get out of-"

Before Lucy could say anything else, the lava that came down from the hole was getting absorbed by the stone. The magical item took it all in, as well as taking in the heat that came from above, and the ruby red stone started to glow with a cherry red color. It even took in some of the magma while small flames swirled around it in circles, and the stone became quite hot while it took in a large amount of magical power. The level of heat on Kagari Island was starting to drop back down to normal, which meant that Fire Magic could be used without it being crazily powered up, and Kira giggled as she smiled at the fact the island would be safe.

That didn't stop her from thinking about her goal of being the best thief who doubled as a merchant while wanting to fun with legends and lore, so she stunned her friends by removing the ruby red stone from its indentation. She threw it to Lucy, who caught it with her right hand, and Sting pulled Lucy close to him for her to not fall in the magma. He simply walked back across the stone bridge with her while wondering if the heat made Kira go crazy, and he stood by Lucy's side as he watched Kira run back with a calm smile on her face. Now that the island was safe, she thought it wouldn't matter at all if she removed the sacred stone.

* * *

 **A/N: How was Chapter 3? Feel free to share your thoughts on it. Don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Small Flames of Warming Bonds**

* * *

After Sting jumped up to the entrance area of the volcano with Lucy in his arms, he walked outside to see that the town's climate felt somewhat cooler than when they had first arrived on Kagari Island. The white dragon slayer gently put Lucy down for her to stand up, and he began walking back to the dock with a slight frown on his face. He couldn't believe that Kira took the red star-shaped stone out of its proper spot, making him really hope that no volcanic eruptions of deadly heat waves would start to transpire, and he didn't care that Lucy was walking behind him.

Lucy smiled kindly at the fact that Sting helped her get back into the town, even though he only did it because of how they were together on the mission to help Kira get the island's Fire Magic back to its normal level, and Lucy couldn't just let Sting leave without thanking him or trying to be friends with him. Lucy did agree with him about how it was wrong of Kira to steal the sacred stone, but it was now in the left pocket of the purple dress that Lucy was wearing. Putting the red stone back would be a good thing to do, but there would be something wrong with that.

Kira had told Sting and Lucy about how another girl pulled out the stone, which caused Kagari Island's fiery problems in the first place, and putting it back didn't affect the situation in a positive way at all. Therefore, Lucy really wouldn't be doing the right thing by returning the stone to the volcano of Hongnyeon Town. She decided to just keep it with her, and having it in her possession would also keep it out of Kira's hands. That quirky mage was certainly bold to steal such an important treasure, and Lucy sadly didn't catch up to Sting fast enough for her to hear about the deal that was made.

She continued to walk behind him while hearing Kira happily cheer loudly about being out of the volcano, and Lucy looked back for a few seconds to see Kikyo extend her left hand towards Kira for the purpose of pulling on her right ear. She showed no sympathy for Kira having some injuries from the fireball that hit her earlier, and the older woman had a stern facial expression as she proceeded to drag Kira back to the Crimson Flame guild. That was where Lucy was supposed to receive her reward from the client, but she felt like her gratitude to Sting needed to be expressed first.

"Sting, I really want to thank you for helping me out. If you weren't there when Kira attacked me, I might not still be alive. Thank you so much." Lucy told him with a happy smile on her face, slightly twiddling her thumbs.

The blue-eyed male replied in a somewhat annoyed tone as he turned around, not forgetting that she was associated with Natsu, "Whatever, Blondie. I had to deal with looking for that chick throughout Magnolia, and my time could've been spent better. Instead, I'll have to deal with motion sickness on a boat and later on a train."

Lucy responded to him while looking somewhat irritated, not liking how he didn't care, "Hey, don't call me Blondie! My name is Lucy Heartfilia! Your hair is blond, too! You should be pretty happy that I'm thanking you!"

Her loud voice caused Sting to look pained as he covered his ears, really feeling like she was the type of girl who got offended pretty easily, and Sting really wanted to have a good night without someone yelling at him. He decided to start running to the dock while wanting to just get off of the island, and being away from Lucy would definitely be better for his ears. The enhanced hearing that dragon slayers possessed could certainly be a blessing, as they could hear things from miles away at a decent level of volume, but having someone yell in close proximity to them made it also be a curse.

Lucy tried to run after Sting, but he was certainly an impatient guy who ran at high speeds while he would not choose to slow down. She simply ran to the dock while wanting to get home, but Lucy stopped on the cobblestone street for a moment. Her brown eyes shifted to the healing mage who still sat down in a chair while she was in front of the soup that did smell delicious, and Lucy was definitely glad that she helped her get the harsh burn out of her palm. Lucy gave the girl a gentle smile of gratitude, causing her to calmly smile back at her, and the matter of getting the reward was tied to something important.

Lucy may have really disliked Kira for attacking her and eating her last rice ball, but that did not overshadow the fact that Kira still helped Lucy get rid of those fireballs. She also had no qualms with Lucy holding on to the red spell book and the map that was with it, not even asking for them to be returned at a later time, and Kira could've just easily knocked out Lucy after taking the sacred stone. Instead, the hazel-eyed merchant let Lucy enjoy the adventure while she had also been the one who triggered the fiery traps for the protagonists to see what they'd have to handle.

Kira had been taken away by Kikyo to most likely receive some form of punishment for her thievery, as stealing from any guild was a violation of the common rules that light and dark guilds shared, and Lucy started to look somewhat guilty about how Kira would have to suffer. If she ended up telling the guild master of Crimson Flame that the red stone could no longer be put in its proper place, Kira would surely be sent to the Magic Council for the crime of tampering with an important item that regulated the flow of magic in the volcanic area of Fiore. Those council members wouldn't let her off easy, and Lucy groaned in frustration while closing her eyes.

"Hey, is everything ok?" The violet-eyed healing mage asked Lucy in a concerned tone, hoping she didn't injure herself again.

Lucy opened her eyes and asked her in a stern manner, showing her the red spell book, "Can you tell me where the Crimson Flame guild is located?"

The girl replied nicely as she stirred her soup, "It's not too far north of the volcano, but the other mages may get angry about you having one of our books."

Lucy ran back towards the volcano while taking the girl's directions of going further north, and she really hoped that Kira wouldn't be receiving a merciless beating right now. She ran past a concession stand that sold cherry pies, which made her have the thought of buying one to take home when she was officially done with this mission, and Lucy also hoped that Sting wouldn't be enough of a jerk to board the ship while leaving Lucy stuck on the island. If he chose to do that, then Natsu would certainly beat up like he did in the Grand Magic Games.

Lucy went past the volcano and took a right turn, before going further north, and she caught the attention of some red-haired females who stood on the left and right sides of a barren path. Lucy merely ran past them while they were quite surprised about her having one of their red books, and the five females all gasped in shock from her having it in her possession. They were even more surprised to see her Fairy Tail insignia, and Lucy pulled out the red flyer from the right pocket of her purple dress. She could see the guild building far off in the distance, and the path was bordered by some pools of red lava.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, in Crimson Flame's guildhall...**

The guildhall of Crimson Flame had a dark red carpet that went well with the walls that were painted in a normal shade of red, and the windows on the left and right sides of the guild were adorned by some black curtains. A brown bar resembling the one at Fairy Tail was at the back at the guildhall while the round tables in this dark guild were red, and there was a staircase that led to the upper room. There was just one room on that floor, and it was the guild master's office. However, the woman who ran the guild now stood in front of the bar to face Kikyo and Kira.

This woman had pink hair that was in two front braids while her eyes were brown, and she wore a strapless black dress with some golden high-heeled shoes to match. She appeared to be at least five years older than Erza Scarlet, and the woman was currently leaning against the counter of the bar while giving Kira a very stern glare for thievery that was also treason to her own guild. She soon stood up straight and took some steps towards Kira, starting to smirking evilly about what her punishment could be, but that smirk soon turned to a frown of disgust. Kira groaned in frustration from seeing her guild master pull her left arm backwards, and she ended up receiving seven aggressive slaps to her face.

"Kira, you had absolutely no right to steal from this guild! Out of all the things you've done, this really breaks the rules! Now, give me the book and the map!" The guild master yelled at her in a scolding manner, folding her arms as the other mages glared at Kira for this crime.

Kira responded with a nervous look on her face, her hazel eyes looking left and right to avoid eye contact with the older woman, "Miss Rei, I actually... left the book in the hands of a girl from Fairy Tail. She helped me get the Ruby Star, so I let her keep the book for her to learn those spells of Fire Magic."

Rei asked her with a facial expression that was a fusion of shock and anger, "Kira, you WHAT?!"

Kikyo and the other members were very surprised that Kira's thievery and merchant skills went to the point of where she'd just give one of the guild's precious books to someone from the Fairy Tail guild, and Rei Ayase could only start to angrily rant about how that book contained spells of Fire Magic that were only supposed to be known to the members of Crimson Flame. She felt like Kira made a major error in judgement, even if she needed that girl's help with keeping Kagari Island from completely burning up, and she just couldn't tolerate Kira's antics anymore.

She quickly lifted up Kira's red T-shirt with her right hand, and she made five small red flames be on the five fingers of her left hand. She slammed her hand against the red guild mark that was slightly above Kira's stomach, and Crimson Flame's insignia was merely a red flame with four dots forming a square around it. The force of that slam sent Kira rolling several feet away from her while she groaned in pain, feeling the flames sizzling against her skin, and Rei felt like she should've done that from the very first time that Kira got into trouble with Fairy Tail.

Rei gently snapped her fingers as she turned to face Kikyo with a stern glare, letting the other woman remember that excommunication from this guild meant that Kira's belongings needed to be packed, and Kikyo proceeded to go into the eastern hallway for the purpose of going into the infirmary. Kira hadn't rented an apartment or a house on Kagari Island, instead choosing to stay in the infirmary while also using the guild's shower room every day, and stealing jobs from Fairy Tail while constantly disobeying Rei's orders made Kira be seen as a freeloader by her guild master.

Kira gave the other guild members a calm smile while recalling the deal that Sting made with Kikyo, and she was honestly happy to be leaving Crimson Flame soon. Judging by how Rei was so annoyed with her behavior, Kira only wished that she could've left with style. She frowned at Rei while knowing that she couldn't start a brawl in the guildhall without being beaten down by the other women, however, and the tension was certainly thick right now. Kira turned away from Rei while planning to leave quietly, but the sound of the guild's red wooden doors opening stopped her from walking. Kira gasped in shock from seeing a familiar girl come in, walking casually like she owned the place.

"Who the hell are you, and what do you want?" Rei asked Lucy in a stern manner, still upset at Kira as she frowned.

Lucy explained calmly as she showed her the red flyer, remaining calm in the dark guild, "I'm a wizard from Fairy Tail, and my name is Lucy. I found your guild member named Kira in my town, and I brought her to Kagari Island. I'd like to receive my reward for capturing her, please."

Rei told her with a miffed facial expression, seeing the red book in her left hand, "I'll give you your money, and you can keep what that loser gave you. Giving it back to me won't stop her from being nothing but trouble to whatever guild she joins next."

Lucy turned back to look at Kira, surprised to see the criminal lift up her shirt to show that Crimson Flame's guild mark was removed from her body, and Lucy never imagined that a dark guild specializing in Fire Magic would kick out the only member who had enough courage to try getting the magical flames back to their proper level instead of just letting the problem persist. Lucy went back to facing Rei and frowned at her while saying that Kira should've been praised for helping the people of Kagari Island not go down in flames, but Rei simply ignored her while going behind the counter of the bar.

She went to the lower drawer and pulled out a big brown bag of jewels that would go to whoever could capture Kira, and Rei merely threw the bag in Lucy's direction. Lucy dropped the red flyer as she prepared to grab the bag with her right hand, and she decided to walk out of the guildhall while not wanting to start a major argument with the guild master. However, she did have the decency to tell Crimson Flame that all the blame was actually on her for being out so late. If she had stayed home in her apartment, then Kira would've never had the opportunity to give her the book or the stone.

Lucy even brought up to Rei how she should feel pretty lucky that the book didn't end up in the hands of Natsu Dragneel, the fire dragon slayer who could beat down anyone with the immense power of his flames, and the mere mention of his name caused some of the guild's male mages to shudder while feeling some fear. If he had learned those spells and learned how to creatively use them, Natsu could beat Crimson Flame if he ever had to handle the job of decimating their guild. Lucy proceeded to walk out of the guild while feeling like Kira did her guild a favor, but she still felt as if she couldn't be close friends with the snarky criminal.

As Lucy went out of the guild's front doors to go back into Hongnyeon Town, Kira faced those doors with a look of disbelief. She couldn't fathom how Lucy tried to stick up for her, especially after how they weren't even really friends, and Lucy only helped Kira out because of the situation being so dangerous. The same could be said for Sting, too, and Kira felt like she really did owe them for helping her out. As Kikyo came back from the infirmary with Kira's red suitcase on wheels that was fully packed, Kira actually smiled nicely at how Rei informed her last month about the boat schedules that were figured out by the times of day where they sailed from Magnolia Town.

* * *

 **Five hours later...**

The white ship taking Lucy and Sting back to Magnolia was not scheduled to leave until 8 o'clock, and the current time was 7:30 in the morning. Lucy felt glad about she got her reward money for completing the job that Rei sent to the Fairy Tail guild, and she also hoped that the owner of the bakery in Magnolia would understand why Sting couldn't watch the bakery during the night. Lucy would even help the white dragon slayer properly explain why Sting came back on a boat, and she was happy that her issue during the night slowed down that criminal enough to where Sting could apprehend her.

Lucy took notice of Sting tapping his left foot in an impatient manner, almost like he was really waiting on something, and he kept looking at the streets of Hongnyeon Town. Some fires were being extinguished while some of the townspeople went about their days normally by shopping or buying breakfast from restaurants, and Sting was waiting for someone else to show up. He didn't want to leave this island or Magnolia without the two rewards that he would receive, and Sting turned away from the town for a moment to see that Lucy was smiling at him. Succeeding on a job would make anyone seem happy, but Sting did wonder why Lucy took a job on her own.

"Your name is Lucy, right? Why didn't you have Natsu or Erza help you fight Kira? Would it have been bad to wake them up?" Sting asked curiously as he folded his arms, trying to understand why someone who wasn't powerful would try to handle a job by themselves.

Lucy replied calmly, her expression starting to be somewhat sad, "Well, I got rejected by Natsu yesterday. He likes Lisanna, and I wasted five months with trying to be his girlfriend. Gray wanted to help me out on this job, but I needed time away from them. Erza seemed like she didn't want to tell me who Natsu liked, either."

The celestial spirit mage added in a frustrated tone, looking away from Sting, "I took that job at night and thought it would go smoothly without them bothering me, but those flames of Kira's really showed me that becoming stronger will be very difficult."

At that moment, Sting could only let out a slight chuckle. Lucy was saying that it would be pretty difficult for her to stronger, which was what Yukino claimed on the day after she was let back into Sabertooth, and Sting felt like that was hardly a true statement. If she wanted to make herself become stronger for the purpose of not letting anyone hurt her again, then she would have to stay true to her motive and work pretty hard. Sting believed that it could simply be done with honest effort, along with determination, and Yukino had proven that to him when they sparred recently.

He may not have shown any interest in Lucy, but Sting was pretty happy that the Crimson Flame guild did not give her a brutal thrashing for going into their guild to get her reward money. If that ended up happening, then Lucy really would need to learn how to improve herself to where she could eliminate people who were running dark guilds. Sting didn't feel like it would be worth his time to train her, really feeling like she was far below his skill level, and the blue-eyed dragon slayer wondered if she could just beg Erza to train her.

Still, he thought about how Lucy stalled Kira long enough for his nose to pinpoint her scent. He also took a few seconds to glance at that red spell book containing Fire Magic, and Sting wondered if he could make Lucy feel somewhat better about the fact that Natsu did not want her to be his girlfriend. Lucy was now looking at him in a somewhat offended manner, thinking that he was chuckling at her problems, and Sting put up his hands in a defensive manner while calmly informing her that he was just thinking that Lucy could get a good tutor.

Lucy gave him a soft smile while thinking that she'd just have to go ask one of the wizards in Crimson Flame if they would ever have time to help her get better with this new Fire Magic, and they would probably just refuse to help her without even giving it a second thought. After all, those wizards definitely wouldn't want to help out a mage who would be using their book that was filled with several secrets. Lucy proceeded to look up at the morning sun that shined down on the beautiful blue ocean water, liking how it was so nice, but her plans were interrupted by the sound of someone's footsteps coming on to the brown dock.

"Master, I've finished all my shopping! I'm upholding our deal, and I'll join Sabertooth! By the way, Lucy, I even got something for you!" Kira exclaimed to the two mages while carrying seven red shopping bags with her right hand, smiling as she also used her left hand to pull her red suitcase that was on wheels.

Lucy replied in a shocked manner as she took the bag that had her name written on the bottom of it with a black marker, "I'm glad you got me something, but there's no reason for you to come along!"

Sting explained to Lucy as he started to look embarrassed as he laughed nervously, "Well, I made a deal with that lady in front of the volcano. If we were allowed inside, Crimson Flame would hand Kira over to Sabertooth. Lucy, she can kinda be your tutor in handling Fire Magic."

The white ship was now ready to leave Kagari Island, and one of the sailors came out of the ship's front door to let passengers know that they could start boarding it. Kira quickly ran into the ship while Sting reluctantly followed her, and Lucy also went into the ship after positioning the red spell book to be under the red shopping bag. She looked inside the bag to see that Kira bought her a cherry pie that was freshly made while it was covered by a glass lid, and such a nice act caused Lucy to start wondering if her enemy really wanted to become an ally.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 4? I don't know when the next update will be, though. I've been pretty busy. Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review for more chapters of Sting x Lucy!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 **Akihisa of The Desert, Part 1**

* * *

Lucy walked into the Fairy Tail guild with a smile on her face, still feeling pretty happy about the adventure that took place in the town of Hongnyeon, and she was ready to get her day started. It had been two days since Lucy first received the red book from Kira, quite glad that her new Fire Magic could be very helpful on some jobs, and the blonde-haired mage was very excited about the spells that were in it. In fact, she was able to read more of the book's lines that were in a cherry red color. She was still unable to read the words in pink, however, but Lucy didn't mind that at all.

Her third spell of Fire Magic had been known as Fiery Chain, and this spell caused Lucy to shoot out a chain of flames from either of her hands. It was useful because of how each flame that struck an enemy would be stronger than the last one, and bombarding an opponent with those flames could make this move be pretty lethal. Lucy used the third spell yesterday on a job where she had to burn away some piles of dead leaves for a client who offered her seven-thousand jewels for handling that task. Although, the spell's aftereffect did leave behind some flames in the areas of the garden where scorch marks occurred.

She had also glanced at the red book while walking home last night to see that there was a spell of Fire Magic that really caught her interest, thinking that it would be pretty cool to use in that moment, and it was known as Fire Spin. The spell caused a red ball of fire to appear in Lucy's right hand, having a high amount of heat, and the book instructed Lucy to throw the ball up into the air. The sphere spun in a clockwise direction, and four small fireballs emerged from it. The larger ball of fire quickly detonated while the smaller fireballs were caught in the explosion, but they merely grew in size before spinning and exploding themselves.

Lucy's cocoa brown eyes were filled with calmness as she headed to the request board, paying no mind to what any members of Team Natsu were doing, and she was ready to see what kind of jobs would be available. Despite the fact that yesterday's job only gave her nine-thousand jewels, Lucy wasn't taking jobs for the money. The task of bringing Kira back to Crimson Flame had given her enough cash to pay her apartment's monthly rent, so Lucy would now just be seeking something that could give her an exciting adventure.

"Morning, Lucy. If you want to go out on jobs with us again, then we already have one picked out." Gray politely told her with a calm smile on his face, as he looked straight at her.

Lucy replied nicely to him as she turned around, giving him a look a refusal, "Sorry, Gray. I'm wanting to handle a job by myself today. I've done that for the past few days, but I've enjoyed having some peace."

Gray told her in a calm manner while his dark blue eyes widened a bit, still concerned about how she was emotionally feeling, "Well, just don't end up deserting us for good. If you ever need me, then just contact my Communications Lacrima Crystal."

The blonde-haired girl went back to looking at the flyers while ignoring how Gray got up to simply sit at an empty table that had less distance from her, and Lucy soon found something interesting. She looked behind a flyer that talked about some poisoned water being the start of something really bad, giggling as she thought that client was exaggerating, and Lucy uncovered an orange flyer. The job's description spoke of how there was a sand-wielding mage causing trouble in the Yajilon Desert, and he had even harmed the residents in a nearby town.

Lucy was surprised to also learn that she might have to deal with quakes happening, as someone had recently done something to make Earth Magic go out of whack, and that made her think back to the dilemma that Kira's former guild dealt with on the island. There was no way for Lucy to just assume that these two crazy events were related, but she felt like this job had to be taken because of people really needing help. Lucy also felt like she would need to be prepared for vicious sandstorms, and deserts did tend to get hotter around noon.

Since that was hours away from the current time, Lucy felt like it would be a great idea to run out of the Fairy Tail guild. She could go all the way to the Yajilon Desert now, and Lucy hoped to give a powerful beating to that sand-wielding criminal who was causing problems. Lucy may not have had the Earth Magic to shake things up, but she intended on burning her way to victory. Lucy unpinned the orange flyer and ran out of the guild, glad to get back to the red spell book that was in her apartment, and she wondered if it would be a good idea to call Sting.

If he wanted to go out on a job with her today, then Lucy would just have to turn him down. She would be sure to ask him if he wanted to help her, though, and Lucy smiled happily as she felt glad that the white dragon slayer at least wanted to exchange contact info with her. Lucy planned to call him when she got to her apartment, and she quickly went down the guild's grey stairs. As she was about to reach the dirt path, however, the Communications Lacrima Crystal that was in the right pocket of her orange skirt began to ring loudly as a way of indicating that someone was calling her.

Lucy asked aloud in a curious manner, after taking out the light blue ball that was pulsating lightly, "Who could be calling me?"

After Lucy tapped it, Kira asked in a calm manner, "Hello? This is Lucy, right?"

Lucy responded as she looked somewhat irked, surprised that shared her contact info with the quirky girl, "Whatever you want, just come and say it to me! Thanks for that pie, but I'm not sending you rice balls!"

Lucy tapped the crystal ball again to turn it off, and she let out an annoyed sigh while walking back to her apartment. Despite the fact that Kira saw her as an ally for helping her out so much on Kagari Island, Lucy still couldn't bring herself to trust the red-haired thief. One cherry pie was not sufficient enough for Lucy to fully trust her, but Lucy sighed again as she thought about how it had not been a request for Kira to buy her anything. She did that out of kindness with no ulterior motives in mind, so Lucy couldn't treat her like a hustling merchant who wanted something in return.

The Celestial Spirit Wizard may not have really trusted Kira, but Lucy did feel like it was wrong of her to be rude. Lucy didn't want Kira to bother her about rice balls, but getting to know Sabertooth's newest mage could be good. After all, there was nothing wrong with trying to make a new friend. Kira probably perceived Lucy to be a good friend for telling Rei that Kira kept the island from completely being burnt away, so how could Kira not want to chat with Lucy like they were allies? Would Kira even help out Lucy with more than just being her tutor?

* * *

 **One hour later, at Lucy's apartment...**

Lucy looked down at the orange T-shirt and brown skirt that she wore while sitting on her warm bed that was covered by the pink comforter, and she smiled nicely at how she picked out a good outfit for this mission. Her brown skirt would probably go well with the color of sand, and Lucy wondered if she would end up getting to see some quicksand. Luckily, she never stepped into that moving sand. If she did end up touching it, then Lucy would probably sink down to the depths of the dangerous desert and not be able to pull herself out.

Her thoughts shifted from quicksand to the red book that was on her brown desk, fittingly next to the sacred stone that was still glittery in its ruby red color, and Lucy wondered if the map that she took from Kira would provide any nice clues about the stone. Lucy's cocoa brown eyes started to glance at it with curiosity, and she got off of her bed for the purpose of walking over to the red book. Lucy quickly arrived at her desk while starting to smile, and she opened up the red book to see that the map acted like a nice bookmark over the page that featured the fourth spell.

Lucy took a glance at the map to see that Kira's marking on Kagari Island was the only thing that made the old map stand out from other maps of Fiore that she had seen, and Lucy gently picked up the red sacred stone with her left hand. She gave it a puzzled look while having it be a few inches away from her face, and Lucy started to frown while wondering if the stone's only purpose was to absorb excess amounts of Fire Magic. If that was the case, Lucy could just make fire-wielding enemies absorb her flames and then drain their levels of magical power to zero.

As Lucy began to softly smile at the thought of beating enemies that easily, she placed the ruby red stone down on the spot where Kagari Island had been marked. The mage from Fairy Tail was merely playing around, but something interesting began to happen because of how she placed the stone on that particular spot of the map. The ruby red stone started to glow while red beams of light emerged from it, the lights focusing down on the map, and the stone was oddly sending its magical power down into it. Lucy was shocked to see this happening, too.

"What in the world is going on?" Lucy asked aloud while seeing the map start to shine with a white glow.

A female voice added from outside in a curious manner, hearing Lucy, "Huh?"

The map shined bright enough to blind Lucy's eyes for several seconds, and she couldn't see that the red beams of light emerging from the star were even going into the book. The star-shaped stone was sending its fiery magical power down into the red book, and that would probably allow Lucy to access some more spells. She actually needed more magical power to fully use these spells, but cleverly using a lower-level spell before using a more powerful one would probably help her out with that task. What was going on with the map, though?

The white light soon faded away, and Lucy opened her eyes to see something that was pretty astounding. There was now an orange marking on a different part of the map, and it was shaped like a star while it was nicely drawn. Kira's own red marking on the map was replaced by a red star that was drawn better while it was in the center of Kagari Island, and the second symbol to appear on the map was most likely telling Lucy that the next stone would be there. As she put the red stone back to where it originally stood on the desk, Lucy wondered why the sacred stone showed off that flashy feature.

She didn't really seem interested in the task of checking out other spells of Fire Magic that were in the red book, and Lucy picked up the map with her right hand. Judging by how the stone had those crazy effects when it touched the map, that item was not the typical one used for the purpose of finding out where towns and routes were located. The map that Lucy currently had in her hand seemed like a guide to finding these sacred stones, but this seemed like more of a curse than a blessing. After all, removing a stone from its altar would cause that respective element's magic in that area to go out of control.

As Lucy began to tremble and have small thoughts about just tearing the map up, three soft knocks at her door snapped the blonde-haired mage out of her thoughts. She placed the map back in the book and closed it, before she picked it up with her left hand, and Lucy was going to see the person who stood on her doorstep. The person chose to knock five more times, causing Lucy to look somewhat irked, and the fact that the person was knocking in a rhythm had made Lucy feel like they were trying to be Fiore's most annoying person.

"Hello, Lucy. You told me to come and tell you directly about what I wanted to say, and I just wanted to tell you that our lesson on working with Fire Magic is cancelled." Kira explained to Lucy with a calm smile on her face, as Lucy opened the door.

Lucy asked Kira in an irked tone, looking annoyed at the situation, "You seriously came all the way here to tell me that? Also, why were you knocking on my door so many times?"

Kira replied in a happy tone of voice while her hazel eyes twinkled with delight, "I knock on wood to wish that you'll be successful, Lucy. Speaking of success, I stole a bunch of items from thieves yesterday in the Yajilon Desert, and then I sold them in the nearby town for high profits. There were sandstorms, but-"

Lucy asked the Sabertooth mage in a calm tone, ignoring the sight of Kira lifting up her red blouse to show Lucy the red guild mark that was on the left side of her waist, "Kira, where is the Yajilon Desert located?"

The fire-wielding woman informed Lucy that she would have to take a train northeast, and she would end up reaching a town that stood before the vast desert. That prompted Lucy to start running towards the train station, and Kira kindly warned her about how the ground wasn't very safe in the town that was near the hot desert. In fact, Kira even spoke of how some mages couldn't use Earth Magic without their mud feeling like hot oil. She hoped that Lucy would listen to her advice, and Kira stood in front of her apartment for a moment.

She giggled nicely while hoping that Lucy would have fun with her spells of Fire Magic, especially with how they could be useful in the desert, and Kira started walking towards a street that would lead her to a nice cafe. She wondered if Lucy would end up getting the treasure, but then Kira suddenly stopped walking as she remembered that two mages from Sabertooth were already on their way to the Yajilon Desert. In fact, one of them happened to be a certain white dragon slayer who felt like his guild needed some more popularity.

* * *

 **20 minutes later, on a path...**

Sting and his red Exceed named Lector were currently walking on a sandy path that was bordered by large rocks, needing to handle a client's request about seeing some bandits bringing terror to the Yajilon Desert, and the light dragon slayer was actually taking this job to make the people in the nearby town of Kuchiba know his name. He had gone there before to get some coffee, only to find out that the prices for sugary coffee were quite high, and one man even had the nerve to rudely tell Sting that the town would never need to thank him.

There were some places in Fiore where the Sabertooth guild wasn't very famous, such as Magnolia Town, and Sting also didn't like how the town of Kuchiba had mages who were more popular than him. He tried to ask the owner of the coffee shop last month about lowering the price for the guild master of Sabertooth, but that owner had the audacity to tell the blue-eyed male about how a guild that got second place in the Grand Magic Games because of him surrendering like a coward would never make him earn the respect needed for lower-priced coffee drinks.

As Sting and Lector kept walking down the sandy path that led to the town, seeing some dust clouds go past them for a moment, the duo groaned in frustration at how the sunlight was harshly shining down on this part of Fiore. The desert was quite a hot area, spreading that heat to its closest locations, and Sting was glad to be walking on a rocky path that would lead straight into town. Walking on sand would have certain disadvantages, such as how it could shift very easily if it was too soft, and sand could also end up being dangerously hot.

This wasn't exactly going to be a nice trip to the beach, since Sting found sand in the desert to be a real annoyance, and even going into the desert with Lector wouldn't really calm his irked demeanor. Sting did take this job for the purpose of wanting recognition, which was a somewhat admirable motive, so he couldn't really blame the client who created the flyer. It would be good to take down those bandits swiftly, though, and Sting lightly clenched his left fist while thinking that his Holy Nova attack would be the best way to end the mission fast.

"If this job doesn't make Sabertooth have a better reputation, Lector, then we might as well not even help these people out." Sting explained to his friend who flew beside him, not happy about how he had been treated in this town.

Lector responded with a confident facial expression, seeing no need to worry, "Sting-kun, we'll get this job done and everyone will praise Sabertooth for stopping the sandstorms!"

"Nobuhiko-nii, you can't just run off into the desert!" A young boy's voice exclaimed, before he screamed from how the sandstorm blinded his eyes.

Hearing someone scream with worry caused Sting to apply White Dragon Slayer Magic to his feet, and he ran towards Kuchiba Town at much faster speeds while Lector started to fly at a faster pace. They ran quickly to where they started getting caught in the sandstorms that were blowing through the town, and Sting ended up getting some sand in his mouth. He comically spat it out while wiping off his tongue, griping about how the heat was just as bad as the sandstorms, and Lector watched Sting take quite a gamble.

He activated the Holy Ray spell, which required him to make a circle with his hands, and several thin beams of white light emerged from it. They flew in a curved trajectory to hit their targets, detonating when they made contact with objects, and Sting weakened his spell right before firing it. He was feeling pretty confident about how he wouldn't need to use much power with taking out twisters of sand, and he ended up being right. Despite the fact that several white blasts of light occurred in the town, Sting managed to hit three of the sandstorms and only leave one to slowly swirl around on the other side of the town.

Some of the residents came out of holes that had been dug recently, trying to hide themselves from the sandstorms, and one of the residents who was a merchant even wondered if that light came from the heavens as a sign that life was starting to change for the better. Sting would definitely be glad to get praised for his efforts, and he would take out that last sandstorm with ease. However, he and Lector walked towards the desert while mainly wondering who was the person telling their brother to not go off into the desert.

Houses made from orange wood were on the western side of the street while restaurants were on the eastern side of it, and Sting noticed that someone dropped an orange guidebook on to the golden-brown sand. Sting picked it up and dusted off the pages to see that they were merely showing a map of this town, but the next few pages displayed a map of the Yajilon Desert. He noticed that most of the desert's map was in a light orange color while some areas were in a darker shade of an orange, and the area for the town was colored red. Sting was about to run off, but someone soon tugged gently on his blue vest.

"Traveler, can you please track down Nobuhiko-nii and stop him? He went out to take down whoever caused Earth Magic to go crazy, but can you stop him before he uses those reckless techniques?" The young boy asked Sting in a worried manner, not wanting his brother to die.

Sting responded with a confident grin on his face while looking at the kid, glad that this day just got interesting, "Don't worry! I'll stop your brother from doing anything crazy! I'm the great Sting Eucliffe, and I can take down anyone!"

The boy responded to Sting in a pleased manner, smiling as his fists were clenched tightly with ambition, "The way you took out those sandstorms was great, Sting-kun! My name is Masayuki Nijou, and my brother and I belong to the Gaburias Ganzan guild."

Even though this town had a guild, Sting recalled seeing Gaburias Ganzan be in twentieth place of the list of guilds that were ordered by ranking. In terms of strength, it was one of the average guilds that didn't exactly get the best jobs. However, it was pretty odd that a guild in a town that was near a desert filled with thieves would be able to survive for so long. Apparently, it had been founded in the year X787 and all of the guild's members specialized in Earth Magic. There weren't many of them working hard today, though.

With his sights now set on the last sandstorm that was preventing him from easily entering the Yajilon Desert, Sting ran down the street while feeling excited about reaching the other end of the town. He grinned with absolute confidence about how it would be easy to take down whoever was having way too much fun with their sandy spells, and Sting was glad to also run past some people who wanted to thank him for trying to make things easier for them. However, the nice residents weren't the only ones who had their eyes on Sting and Lector.

* * *

A man wearing an orange fedora hat and brown pants to match had been observing Sting from behind the corner of a building, finding it to be no mistake, and this man was actually one of the bandits that committed robberies in this town. He took a few steps forward while choosing to just watch the white dragon slayer and his Exceed run off into the desert, thinking that it would be a good idea to kill them later, and this man looked down at his orange T-shirt as he felt like laughing at how this seemed to be his lucky day.

He was a criminal who had actually wanted to join Gaburias Ganzan for an entire year now, but they kept on refusing him because of how he could not defeat any of the guild's top five mages. They had actually been pretty skilled while not minding that their guild didn't have an S-Class exam yet, and the man started to frown in a frustrated manner as he recalled how one of the males easily defeated him with some strong punches. He couldn't even challenge the female who looked like the nicest one in the group, as her magic proved to explosively not match her personality.

As he thought about how Sting's death would make those guild members see that he was strong, the plans of the antagonist were interrupted by the loud sound of the train's whistle. Even though this town was near a desert and a dirt path that led to the town, train tracks were still put down for people who didn't want to walk all the way from Magnolia. There was actually a tunnel that the train could come through to reach Kuchiba Station, but the train's whistle in this situation was used for signifying that it was leaving the town.

The villain with messy brown hair grinned a bit while deciding to follow Sting into the desert, wanting to show that he was powerful enough to be in the guild, but he was soon distracted by how he sensed a strong vibration of power from far away. Some mages, such as this man, could sense a mage's power from the moment that it was used. He actually picked up on how a certain Celestial Spirit Wizard with blonde hair accidentally used the spell known as Fire Spin, shooting the fireball out the window of a train, and the antagonistic man soon smirked a bit while he could feel the ground slightly shake from what was possibly a fiery explosion.

He felt like things were going to get really interesting, especially if the creator of that slight tremor was planning to explore the Yajilon Desert, and he narrowed his light brown eyes while wondering if that wizard would be the same person who took the orange stone out of the hidden altar that he ended up discovering. This man was merely taking advantage of the chaos that ensued from the stone's removal before it was put back without properly regulating the Earth Magic, and he also chuckled at the thought of thirsty residents buying coffee because of how his dense sand sealed the town's oasis.

* * *

 **How was Chapter 5? Feel free to give me feedback on it. I'm excited to see what happens in this arc. I'd also like to thank everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed this story!**


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